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FIEDLER, ARTHUR 1894-1979

CONDUCTOR

Classical Popularizer

Arthur Fiedler was responsible to an extraordinary degree for the popularity of classical music by the 1970s. Born in Boston on 17 December 1894, he studied music with his father and at the Royal Academy of Music in Berlin. He was a pianist, second violinist, and violist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1915 to 1930. In 1924 he formed the Boston Sinfonietta, a chamber orchestra drawn from the Boston Symphony Orchestra staff. In 1929 he demonstrated his genius for broadening the classical-music audience by founding the Esplanade Concerts, a free summer concert series on the banks of the Charles River.

New Audiences

By 1930 Fiedler was the conductor of the renamed Boston Pops Orchestra, staffed by Boston Symphony musicians, which attracted thousands of new listeners. Lovers of classical music resisted this popularization at first, but the charming (and sometimes crusty) Fiedler won over his critics. He had proved that new concert audiences for classical music could be won by public outreach.

Unparalleled Showmanship

For fifty years the white-maned, mustachioed Boston Pops maestro led the world's most successful concert and recording orchestra. His un-paralleled showmanship and knack for public tastes brought Broadway, Hollywood, radio, and television stars to the Pops stage. Like sports, classical music had changed by the 1970s to entertain a mass audience. Fiedler presented most major recording stars, mixing classical selections with show tunes and film scores. When he died in Brookline, Massachusetts, on 10 July 1979, the American public acceptance of classical music was no longer a fad but an established fact.